Pilgrim’s Wins Blacksmith Applications Award for Implementation from Legacy System

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Caitlin Orosz under Company News

Pilgrim’s is known for offering customers healthy, high-quality products, making them the second-largest chicken producer in the world.

After completing a 5-month system implementation that was efficient and under budget, Blacksmith Applications presented Pilgrim’s with the customer award for superior implementation and conversion from a legacy system at Smoke Jumpers XV.

Pilgrim’s had concerns around their lack of visibility into operator programs and the difficulty of validating operator claims. Due to the challenges with their legacy software, in 2015, Pilgrim’s began using FORGE for operator program creation.

Since implementing FORGE, Pilgrim’s has reaped benefits from the application’s operator program analysis. The detailed margin page shows the impact of overlapping trade programs, enabling the team to effectively examine how many dollars are being measured against each case. The trade adjustment functionality supports analysis of program validation outside of a siloed environment, and the ability to load data by line item to extend visibility.

Sr. Project Manager at Blacksmith Applications, Kelly Cole, said, “The team at Pilgrim’s realized current trade management challenges with their process and system and recognized the value in best practices provided by Blacksmith Applications.”

Pilgrim’s leaned on Kelly’s domain expertise during their transition, leading them to implement FORGE templates that directly inform on profitability on operator deals, analyze spend driven by volume, and save time by reviewing the accurate P&L statement. To finalize the successful conversion, the Blacksmith Applications team trained Pilgrim’s internal team and its brokers to make them FORGE utilization experts.

Pilgrim’s faced their challenges head on – and now, have positive insights through operator purchase visibility, accountability for discounts, and improved decision making based on operator agreements. Congratulations, Pilgrim’s and cheers to more success in program visibility!